Differences between 'Opera' and 'Musical'

    Hello, everyone. When I was a high school student, my teacher of music class often recommended us that we watch operas and musicals like 'Les Miserables.' As a matter of fact, I did not think that musical is good, for I could not understand why people suddenly started to sing songs😅! Thus, I had not watched operas and musicals for a long time (Now, I like to watch musical because I know about it more than ever). 

    However, these days, I knew that opera and musical are not the same things. Today, I will introduce differences between them in below paragraphs.

    First, there are differences in terms of the proportion of music. In opera, songs are the most important, so opera singers never dance by themselves. If authors want to use dance in opera, they should hire those who only dance. On the other hand, in musical, an actor have to sing, perform and dance. This is because audience expect not only music but also story and acting. 

    Also, singing method is different between opera and musical. When opera and musical are performed on live (not on TV or Movie), opera singers have to sing loudly without mike to satisfy people who sit on distant seats from a stage. Thus, opera singers use 'bel canto(ベルカント) singing method,' which is not burden on their throat. Actors in musical usually use mikes because they should do a lot of things including singing by themselves. In addition, they are required to have characteristic voice. Bel canto singing method tends to make homogeneous singing
voice, so it is difficult to represent their characters. 


    I do not introduce other differences, but there are a lot of differences in addition to the two differences. If you are interested in them, I recommend you that you'll search them. I think that they help you to enjoy opera and musical more! Thank you for reading!

    

コメント

  1. Mizuki Satake2021年1月8日 19:23

    Hello!
    I didn't know that opera singers sang without mikes! I assumed that they used mikes because their voices are so loud. I had not been so interested in operas or musicals, but I felt like watching them!
    Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us!

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  2. Ayumi I.2021年1月12日 4:33

    Hi!
    I agree that it is often hard to understand why performers suddenly start to sing...
    By the way, what I think is the most attractive thing in opera and musical is that there is an orchestra playing in the orchestra pit during performances!

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